'\" t
.\"     Title: ascii
.\"    Author: [see the "AUTHOR" section]
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.78.1 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: 04/26/2015
.\"    Manual: Development Tools
.\"    Source: ascii
.\"  Language: English
.\"
.TH "ASCII" "1" "04/26/2015" "ascii" "Development Tools"
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.\" http://bugs.debian.org/507673
.\" http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2009-02/msg00013.html
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.ie \n(.g .ds Aq \(aq
.el       .ds Aq '
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.nh
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.\" * MAIN CONTENT STARTS HERE *
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.SH "NAME"
ascii \- report character aliases
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.HP \w'\fBascii\fR\ 'u
\fBascii\fR [\-dxohv] [\-t] [\fIchar\-alias\fR...]
.SH "OPTIONS"
.PP
Called with no options,
\fBascii\fR
behaves like `ascii \-h\*(Aq\&. Options are as follows:
.PP
\-t
.RS 4
Script\-friendly mode, emits only ISO/decimal/hex/octal/binary encodings of the character\&.
.RE
.PP
\-s
.RS 4
Parse multiple characters\&. Convenient way of parsing strings\&.
.RE
.PP
\-d
.RS 4
Ascii table in decimal\&.
.RE
.PP
\-x
.RS 4
Ascii table in hex\&.
.RE
.PP
\-o
.RS 4
Ascii table in octal\&.
.RE
.PP
\-h, \-?
.RS 4
Show summary of options and a simple ASCII table\&.
.RE
.PP
\-v
.RS 4
Show version of program\&.
.RE
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
Characters in the ASCII set can have many aliases, depending on context\&. A character\*(Aqs possible names include:
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
Its bit pattern (binary representation)\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
Its hex, decimal and octal representations\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
Its teletype mnemonic and caret\-notation form (for control chars)\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
Its backlash\-escape form in C (for some control chars)\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
Its printed form (for printables)\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
Its full ISO official name in English\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
Its ISO/ECMA code table reference\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
Its name as an HTML/SGML entity\&.
.RE
.sp
.RS 4
.ie n \{\
\h'-04'\(bu\h'+03'\c
.\}
.el \{\
.sp -1
.IP \(bu 2.3
.\}
Slang and other names in wide use for it among hackers\&.
.RE
.PP
This utility accepts command\-line strings and tries to interpret them as one of the above\&. When it finds a value, it prints
\fIall\fR
of the names of the character\&. The constructs in the following list can be used to specify character values\&. If an argument could be interpreted in two or more ways, names for all the different characters it might be are dumped\&.
.PP
\fIcharacter\fR
.RS 4
Any character not described by one of the following conventions represents the character itself\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB^\fR\fIcharacter\fR
.RS 4
A caret followed by a character\&.
.RE
.PP
\fB\e\fR\fI[abfnrtv0]\fR
.RS 4
A backslash followed by certain special characters (abfnrtv)\&.
.RE
.PP
\fImnemonic\fR
.RS 4
An ASCII teletype mnemonic\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIhexadecimal\fR
.RS 4
A hexadecimal (hex) sequence consists of one or two case\-insensitive hex digit characters (01234567890abcdef)\&. To ensure hex interpretation use
\fIhex\fR\fBh\fR\fI,\fR\fB0x\fR\fIhex,\fR\fBx\fR\fIhex\fR
or
\fB\ex\fR\fIhex\&.\fR
.RE
.PP
\fIdecimal\fR
.RS 4
A decimal sequence consists of one, two or three decimal digit characters (0123456789)\&. To ensure decimal interpretation use
\fB\e0d\fR\fIdecimal,\fR\fBd\fR\fIdecimal,\fR
or
\fB\ed\fR\fIdecimal\&.\fR
.RE
.PP
\fIoctal\fR
.RS 4
An octal sequence consists of one, two or three octal digit characters (01234567)\&. To ensure octal interpretation use
\fB\e\fR\fI<octal>,\fR\fB0o\fR\fI<octal>,\fR\fBo\fR\fI<octal>,\fR
or
\fB\eo\fR\fI<octal>\&.\fR
.RE
.PP
\fIbit pattern\fR
.RS 4
A bit pattern (binary) sequence consists of one to eight binary digit characters (01)\&. To ensure bit interpretation use
\fB0b\fR\fI<bit pattern>,\fR\fBb\fR\fI<bit pattern>\fR
or
\fB\eb\fR\fI<bit pattern>\&.\fR
.RE
.PP
\fIISO\fR/\fIECMA code\fR
.RS 4
An ISO/ECMA code sequence consists of one or two decimal digit characters, a slash, and one or two decimal digit characters\&.
.RE
.PP
\fIname\fR
.RS 4
An official ASCII or (unofficial) slang name\&.
.RE
.PP
The slang names recognized and printed out are from a rather comprehensive list that first appeared on USENET in early 1990 and has been continuously updated since\&. Mnemonics recognized and printed include the official ASCII set, some official ISO names (where those differ) and a few common\-use alternatives (such as NL for LF)\&. HTML/SGML entity names are also printed when applicable\&. All comparisons are case\-insensitive, and dashes are mapped to spaces\&. Any unrecognized arguments or out of range values are silently ignored\&. Note that the
\fB\-s\fR
option will not recognize \*(Aqlong\*(Aq names, as it cannot differentiate them from other parts of the string\&.
.PP
For correct results, be careful to stringize or quote shell metacharacters in arguments (especially backslash)\&.
.PP
This utility is particularly handy for interpreting cc(1)\*(Aqs ugly octal `invalid\-character\*(Aq messages, or when coding anything to do with serial communications\&. As a side effect it serves as a handy base\-converter for random 8\-bit values\&.
.SH "AUTHOR"
.PP
Eric S\&. Raymond
<esr@thyrsus\&.com>; November 1990 (home page at
\m[blue]\fBhttp://www\&.catb\&.org/~esr/\fR\m[])\&. Reproduce, use, and modify as you like as long as you don\*(Aqt remove this authorship notice\&. Ioannis E\&. Tambouras <ioannis@debian\&.org> added command options and minor enhancements\&. Brian J\&. Ginsbach <ginsbach@sgi\&.com> fixed several bugs and expanded the man page\&. David N\&. Welton <davidw@efn\&.org> added the
\fB\-s\fR
option\&. Matej Vela corrected the ISO names\&. Dave Capella contributed the idea of listing HTML/SGML entities\&.